I've Had Worse
by Audacious
Summary: Gibbs is injured before Christmas and has to rely on Abby for medical assistance, will this bring them closer together? Written for TaylorGibbs. COMPLETE. ONE-SHOT.


**Rating**: Light R for surgery... kinda?  
**Summary**: When Gibbs is wounded, he asks Abby to stitch him up.  
**Written for**: taylorgibbs Secret Santa present at the Gabby forum

To say Abby got bored easily, you had to quickly follow that up with Abby can always find something to do when bored. Text book example lay out before her. Not only had she reorganized and refashioned a new filing system in her lab that, she thought with a grin, only she could ever understand, but in the time she had sat in the bullpen waiting for her very special agents to return she had recycled.

Abby stared happily up at all the freshly hung paper snowflakes that now decorated the desk areas into a winter wonderland. And the fact that all of them were from paper she had hunted out of recycling bins just made it that much better. She just hoped McGee wouldn't notice that she may have accidentally used pages from the Deep Six book at his desk.

The elevator ding made her turn and look expectantly towards it. Her very special agents look disheveled, McGee was now sporting a bandage on his nose and DiNozzo was holding an ice pack to his eye. Ziva looked relatively unharmed.

"What happened to you guys?" Abby asked, extra worried now that she didn't see Gibbs, "and where is our fearless hero? And why aren't you bleeding too?" Abby fired that last question off at Ziva.

"They made me wait with the car." Ziva said with a sniff, "They thought they could handle the pimp."

"Wimp." Tony and McGee chimed together both collapsing into their respective desk chairs.

"Yes whatever, They started it and I came and finished it." Ziva looked superior as she brushed a hand down her shirt as if wiping off imaginary wimp germs.

Abby stared at all three of them, "and where is Gibbs?"

Tony grimaced with pain as he looked around, "Nice snowflakes Abbs, very wintry."

"Tony! Gibbs?" Abby shot him a look she had been practicing in front of the mirror. It was as Gibbs-like as she could get it. All she needed was some cool blue eyes, and that hot silver hair he sported. "Focus Abby, quit thinking about the hair." She brain waved herself.

Tony sighed, shifted the ice pack and said, "Well I imagine our fearless hero Leroy Jethro Gibbs has gone home to his man cave and is licking his wounds with some sandpaper and a fifth of scotch."

Abby looked horrified and grabbed her coat and bag from the floor and took off to the elevator, "I can't believe you let him go home by himself! He is hurt, and needs help!" Her mutterings finally went silent as the elevator doors shut.

Tony leaned back, "Well she took that well."

McGee winced as he looked up, "Did she have to use my book?"

By the time Abby had gotten halfway to Gibbs house the light snow that had been falling turned into heavy wet snow that was causing the roads to ice up and get dangerous. She was thankful when she turned her car into his driveway. The house was dark except for the basement light that shown through a window. Not surprised to find the door unlocked, she let herself in and headed straight for the basement door dropping her coat on a nearby chair.  
"Gibbs?" she called from the top of the stairs.

"Down here Abbs" he called back, "bring that flashlight with you, it's gonna come in handy."

Grabbing the flashlight from the top stair, Abby made her way down and stared in dismay at the bloody towel Gibbs was holding onto his upper arm.

"Glad you're here, need some help." He said followed by a grimace of pain.

"I can't believe Tony let you leave like this! Gibbs, you are bleeding," Abby rushed over closer and caught sight of the bruise on his cheek, "and are bruised." She finished lamely and ran a gentle hand down his cheek.

"Don't blame Tony Abby; I wasn't bleeding when I left NCIS. I just did this with the saw; just like a woodworking probie I rubbed against." He caught the concern in her eyes, and it warmed his heart. There wasn't anyone he trusted more. "The bruise is nothing, I've gotten worse from ex number 2."

Abby set the flashlight down on the workbench next to him, looked at the bloody towel and then looked towards the stairs, mentally calculating how she was going to get him out of basement and to the hospital.

He read her movements and said, "To dangerous to drive to hospital in all this snow."  
Gibbs took her hand and squeezed it, "Need you to stitch it up."

Abby stared him down founded, "Stitch. As in sew? As in Sew your skin together leaving a horrible scar for the rest of your life?" Abby didn't see any hesitation or kidding in his eyes, "Of course you would like a scar."

Abby took a deep breathe and said, "OK I'll just look up techniques on my iPad. There has to be something out there on the interne-"  
Abby stopped in mid sentence as the single bulb in the basement went dark and all the appliances upstairs whirred to silence.

"You were saying?" Gibbs asked with a slight smirk as he clicked on the flashlight, "Told you it would come in handy."

"The internet does not exist without power." Abby said blankly, "I do not exist without internet."

Gibbs took his less bloody hand and laid it reassuringly on her shoulder, "I'll walk you through it. There is suture thread in that first aid kit and a needle is in there too."

Abby, flashlight in hand rummaged on a shelf he had pointed too, "You ever think that if your first aid kit has suture needle and thread in it you should probably reevaluate your hobbies?"

Gibbs shot a grin at Abby's back, she had no fear in telling him what was what; it was probably the main reason their relationship was so strong. Everyone else, his team included, was either too scared or too intimidated. He couldn't help but notice the way her skirt rode up perhaps a little too high, he shook his head. Loss of blood was making him act like DiNozzo.

Abby was still feeling a little disbelief in what her Gibbs wanted her to do. "You have to do this," she thought trying her best to hold down the panic she felt rising up, "He can't. It's too awkward of a place. Too bad it's not on his leg. Then he could do it." Her mind flashed to him with no pants on. "Sweet bippy. Focus Sciuto."

It had taken a long time for her to realize her natural flirting was a little more of a subconscious effort when it came to her silver haired fox. In fact Kate had used her sneaky profiler way to first call Abby's attention to it. Since then it was just a flirtatious dance between her and Gibbs, neither one taking the initiative and just going for it.

Before Abby turned back to her patient, she put a brave face on. "Gibbs needs help. You can do this."

She walked back to her still bleeding patient trying hard to act like this was an everyday occurrence.  
"OK I've wanted to say this for awhile. Off with that shirt Gibbs."

A raised eyebrow and a smirk was his reply as he shrugged out of his bloody T-shirt and threw it on the floor. "Worth the wait Abbs?" he asked quietly.

Abby took one look at the toned shoulders, firm stomach and dusting of silver chest hair, and exhaled sharply. "I guess you'll do." She tried to put down the fluttering in her stomach as nerves but she was never good at lying to herself.

"Never considered the chest hair before. Interesting." She mused silently.

"Here pull up a seat," He used his good arm to pull a stool directly in front of him, "I'll show you how to start. It's not that long so you will only have to make a few stitches."

Abby sat on the offered seat, straddling his legs with her own and used his lap as a worktable.  
He caught the nervous bite to her lips and reassured, "Its ok Abby. I've had worse."

"Wounds or Doctors?" She shot back quickly. They both shot uneasy grins at the other.

Threading the needle she sat back very unsure of her next move, so Gibbs prompted, "Start just below where the gash is the lowest and go from there. Sew it up like one of Ducky's Y incisions."

"Bad comparison. I wish I had internet access. I'd feel much better with Wikipedia, Google or a YouTube video in front of me."

"Wiki-what?"

Abby didn't answer as she leaned forward into him; he caught the scent of her gunpowder perfume and the rosemary and mint shampoo she had used that morning. Gibbs closed his eyes as her gentle hand trembled against his arm, as she cleansed the area with a stinging alcohol swab and then put the needle into motion against the bleeding wound.

Keeping his eyes closed, he gave her a reassuring, "You're doin' fine Abbs. Can't feel a thing."

A shaky sigh was the only response she gave him until a soft, "ok I think that's it." came from her lips.

He opened his eyes to look at her, and was distressed to see the tears rolling down her cheeks.

"I was hurting you," her lip trembled with emotion, "Please don't ask me to do that again."

"Abby, I'm sorry you had to do this." Gibbs cupped her face with a hand and gently wiped the tears away with his thumb. "But it had to be done."

"I know." Her lip trembled again and before he could stop himself, Gibbs found her lips with his and gave her a gentle kiss. She stiffened slightly with shock before she quickly pressed against him, arms around his neck and deepening the kiss. Abby adored the feeling of his warm skin under her hands, she smiled inwardly as he shivered when she lightly traced her nails between his shoulder blades.

When Gibbs finally pulled away, he wasn't sure what he would see in her eyes, with Abby any emotion was fair game. He was pleased though, when he saw the glimmer of delight shining back at him.

"So was that my Christmas present?" Abby asked with a shy smile, "You might have to work hard to top that next year."

Gibbs raised an eyebrow and surprised her with a vigorous kiss, "It's not Christmas yet, you have two days to wait for the rest of it."

Abby cupped his face between her hands and tenderly kissed his forehead, the tip of his nose before finding his lips. Her kiss was full of promise to what could lay in store.

"Well in that case, I want my present early."

END


End file.
